Windell of Evil Mad Scientist Labs is this many, expressed in a binary candle. He shows you how to make your own. Do you know how old he is?

(BTW: I don't think today is really his birthday, but let's play along. He *is* 0100010.)

Binary Birthday

Steampunk art, fashion, design and mods are seen by some as a reaction to today’s generic, plastic gadgets that all look the same until one gets very, very close - practical yes, pleasing no. So polish up that monocle, bring on the brass and banish cookie-cutter clutter as Steampunk artists find thirteen more ingenious ways to redesign and refashion the world by hijacking hi-tech back to the future (past)!

(image via: Geekologie)

How to take a keyboard from ergonomic to phantasmagoric? Start with an IBM M-15 Ergo Keyboard (shown below), drink one bottle of Absinthe and retire to the laboratory. The result may look a lot like this steampunkified deck commissioned by a young lady seeking to express her unique sense of circa-1879 sensibility.

(image via: Geekologie)

The elegant (and probably very heavy) keyboard features violet-tinted LED lighting, etched brass Acanthus leaf patterns on the sides and a cushy burgundy wrist pad. Smoking jacket and cigarette holder optional.

(image via: The Steampunk Workshop)

Headphone design hasn’t changed much in the past century, with the exception of earbuds and, of course, mass plasticization of components. While light weight is always welcome, cutting out the fat has also meant curbing originality. Not so with the vintage-look headphones created - on a budget, yet - by Steampunk artist Molly “Porkshanks” Friedrich and displayed at the Steampunk Workshop.

(image via: The Steampunk Workshop)

This illustrated tutorial shows how to retrofit & gentrify most any old pair of headphones with modern parts. Classic look outside; classy sound from inside. It’s a great way to bring past and present together without involving a wormhole.

(image via: Nicrosin)

Love it or hate it, the Bluetooth earpiece is here to stay - and it’s looking less futuristic everyday. Should that trend continue, the logical result would be the Steampunk mechanical aural communication device. Though the garish and gearish earpiece above is non-functional and just for show, sooner or later some basement inventor will craft one that will make you look like a Victorian Borg. You WILL be assimilated, so have a spot of tea in the meantime.

(image via: Unplggd)

The cellphone is one of today’s most universal mod cons, and it sure does look it. Granted, phone designers have a small space to work with and a barrage of tech tools to implant within. That’s what makes the Steampunk Cellphone above so special - it dispenses with GPS, texting capability and other things that the average E.T. (English Telecommunicator) wouldn’t phone home with anyway.

(image via: Unplggd)

Arthur Schmitt’s wooden wonder runs, as it were, on punch cards - something this writer hasn’t used since Mr. O’Grady’s math class back in ‘72.

(image via: Modding Forums)

Making a Steampunk Mouse that functions as it should is a much simpler proposition since a mouse is a much simpler device. Even so, the elaborate brass & leather mouse shown above looks as luxurious as a Faberge Egg, and rightly so as it was crafted by a Russian devotee of Steampunk. Or “Stimpank” as the Siberians say.

(image via: Modding Forums)

Filimon, the creator of this mouse-terpiece, administers a forum on “Modding of the outlying devices” that claims to be registered in the USSR - now that’s retro.

(image via: Modding Forums)

The attention to fine detail is unmatched, even down to the braided connecting cord and exquisite USB connector, packed in a custom made faux-gilded box. Putin on the Ritz, indeed!

(image via: Etsy)

Form following function is not the Steampunk way, and the gear-licious pocket watch above is a perfect example. The $43.00 watch is for display only as it’s likely the owner is already wearing a digital ticker on his/her wrist.

(image via: Etsy)

Glass, gears and an optional chain complete the classic look of this very watchable watch. Does the all show, no go nature of the device make one a pretender? It doesn’t matter - now you have Brass In Pocket while listening to it on the radio.

(image via: Time Tapestry)

Vianney Halter makes a variety of industrial styled wristwatches that DO work, even though they often resemble turn of the century pressure gauges more than actual chronometers. The trio of “Antiqua” models above are variations on the same multi-dial theme.

(image via: Time Zone)

Vianney Halter also crafts watches for Harry Winston, with the Opus 3 shown above. Timelessly styled, if we may say, the Opus 3 features a platinum or rose gold case and a 53 jewel movement.

(image via: Nerfnauts)

Flaunting Steampunk regalia may be cool, but it could also have an unwanted side effect - attracting the eyes of covetous have-nots. That’s where the Steampunk Nerf Maverick comes in mighty handy. So what if it only shoots Nerf bullets; nobody wants the business end of this bronzed blunderbuss bearing down on them.

(image via: Frank Buchwald)

Let there be light! Not just any old light, Steampunk styled old light! Frank Buchwald’s machine lights evoke a sooty air of industrial revolution tempered with a dash of Wellsian space drama.

(image via: Frank Buchwald)

Buchwald crafts his fully functional illuminators - “lights” somehow just doesn’t cut it - from quality materials such as burnished brass & steel, textile cables and unusual yet non-custom bulbs. The result: stunning fixtures that Tesla himself might use to do a little, er, light reading beneath.

(image via: Instructables)

A little light music? Well, the latter is on tap thanks to The Ambiance Enhancer, a dashingly deco wrist-mounted MP3 player designed by someone with a very un-Steampunkish name: Porkshanks. The player began life as a SONY MDR-006 player but with a little sheet brass, brown leather and… well, Porkshanks goes through the process step by step for those who seek to follow the trail she’s blazed.

(image via: Polapix)

Sometimes it takes just one component to turn a gadget from mainstream to Steampunk. In the case of the above desk clock, it’s Nixie tubes. Seriously, the tubes are in the case. Anyway, Nixie tubes are finicky beasts that demand special care concerning their power supply - probably why they’ve been replaced by LEDs and LCD displays. Finicky or not, the tubes lend an antique aura to this clock that complements the old camera it’s built out of.

(image via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Perhaps the most outstanding example of modern technological blandness is the digital calculator. Hailed as a wonder in the 1970s, they evolved to be smaller, lighter, and to run on miniature solar cells instead of batteries. This is good, no? No… not to those who appreciate all things Steampunk.

(image via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Andy Aaron is most definitely one of “those”, and his delightfully retro Aaron Adding Machines are the antithesis of today’s sleek, near-disposable pocket calculators. Aaron cranks out less of his creations in a year than Sharp stamps out in a couple of seconds. This IS good, because each unique device displays the hand-built luster and “use what you got” tooling that make Steampunk design so appealing.

(image via: Dark Roasted Blend)

Toggle switches, ball chains and vintage components come together in a quiet riot of richly antiqued brass and distressed wood. Some of Aaron’s calculators are so cumbersome they have massive grip handles by which to lug them about. It might not be easy to take these machines anywhere, but it’s certain you’ll never take them for granted… which is really the essence of what Steampunk design is all about.

The work with sprouting seeds is rinsing them: don't rinse enough and you get really unappetizing mold in with your fresh greens. Here's a solution to that problem that makes your toilet a little less wasteful. In action:

Of course, you have the added benefit of the odd looks you'll receive when you explain that you sprout food in your bathroom!

HOW TO - Make a Bluetooth handgun handset for your iPhone, ManaEnergyPotion writes-

How to turn an airsoft handgun and a bluetooth headset into a fun, fully functional handset for your iPhone. Pull the trigger to receive calls and to, um, end them. Listen through the barrel, and talk into the grip. I think everyone has made the thumb and forefinger gun-to-the-head sign when someone unpleasant shows up on their caller ID. Eli and I thought it would be fun to make an actual gun handset, and it turned out to be surprisingly straightforward. No glue or powertools were required. Even though it's not very practical, there's something so satisfying about ending a call with this handset. Pow. Naturally, this handset works with any cell phone. You just feel like pulling the trigger more if you own an iPhone.

Wonderful collection of painted hands.

LEDs are in technology all around us, familiar and helpful for sure but you may wonder - Who invented them? How do I use one? Is it possible to make my own LED?!? Learn the answers to these baffling questions and more in - MAKE presents: The LED

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Stormdrane made this beautiful Star Knot by following this tutorial.

Stormdrane's own tutorial for making a Paracord bracelet can be found in the new Make book, The Best of Instructables, reviewed recently by Marc de Vinck and available in the Maker Shed.

"Field of Light" by Bruce Munro (currently installed at the Eden Project in Corwall, UK) consists of 6,000 acrylic stems connected with fiber optic cables ending in a clear glass sphere. The stems themselves hold no power, so there are 11 external projectors that send light to the balls while the entire installation covers an area of 60 x 20 meters with over 24,000 meters of fiber optic cable. Pretty impressive build, although we wouldn't want to be untangling these cables after the install is over.

via DeZeen

Students @ Bancroft Elementary School in Montreal, Quebec are making some awesome music videos as part of the Modern Music Makers after-school program

students (five to ten years old) are divided into groups of four (give or take), and given the means to make their own songs from scratch. Explains Shaw: “Each group got a drum kit with a certain number of sounds on it—bass, melodies and some effects—and they each had a different palate of sounds to work with.” The means and materials at their disposal were limited at best, but that’s the beauty of the program: anyone can conceivably scrape together the minimum kit to pull it off. For Modern Music Makers, this consisted of a malfunctioning point and-shoot DV cam, some primitive green screen effects, a small laptop, a microphone, a soundcard, a midi keyboard, and an instrument from each kid’s bedroom. The real constraint, says Shaw, was time. “We had one hour a week to work with four groups of kids. The maximum [time] each one would get with the technology was 15 minutes. That’s not a lot of time to generate ideas. Luckily, the programs we used are good for doing stuff on the fly.”
[...]
“Being able to put that technology in the kids’ hands and have them work with it and realize they could create a video, create a song—you could see that disconnect being broken down.”

30 incredible satellite images - this one is my favorite...

Garden City, Kansas, USA - Home to the largest zoological facility in Kansas, Garden City is known for its depiction in Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood.The croplands surrounding the city are irrigated by a vast underground aquifer, creating bands of bright red healthy vegetation that dot the image.

This hockey playing robot is a prototype for a more expressive one no doubt, but we here at Make also like to publish projects that aren't quite finished in order to show the process. This bot detects the movement of the ball and then takes a swipe at it. Next up, Gretsky no doubt!

via RobotGRRL

Synplant takes a unique approach to creating sound with software synthesizers - Each patch starts as a 'seed' that sprouts branches towards parameters you choose. Decide you don't like a certain aspect of the voice? - just clip off the branch. Or if you like it a whole bunch, replant it as its own seed. 3-week demo available on their site - SonicCharge Synplant

More:

Singing Plants

This Bubble calendar via BBG is pretty cute, if you have extra packaging material laying around you could make your own.

Sebastian walks you through the process for creating sample kits for use with the Little Sound DJ sequencer cartridge on Gameboy. The small amount of memory you have to work with makes this an interesting process in its own right -

Now, in my opinion there are three places to look for space when choosing where to crop you samples. You may notice that before the initial attack portion of your sample, there may be small amount of silence or almost silence. You can delete this, of course. Not only will this give you more time, but your depending on the length that you delete from the start, your samples may sound more "in time" with the rest of LSDJ (because the sound will be starting on the beat).

?This tail-pipe hack is meant to make some noise every time the vehicle (in this case a motorcycle) spits out enough carbon monoxide that could be harmful to the environment. Since this might end up getting you into an accident, so we don't condone this type of modification, still it's kind of nice to hear the sound of trumpets rather than the usual gas guzzling motor sounds your bike normally spits out.

via Wrong Distance